This year’s national James Dyson Award winners in the UAE is the Touch device – an invention that can help people with visual impairments identify colours through lights and speech feedback. People with visual impairments may not be able to see colours, but they do have a conceptual idea of what different colours are. With the invention of the Touch Device, they can now be in control of some of the basic daily functions of life including being able to choose the colour of clothes they pick from a wardrobe or identify supplies such as vegetables at the grocery store.
Invented by two university students in the UAE, Touch is an elegantly designed smart ring, white in colour and with a central channel that can flash different colours. The Touch smart ring is an easy to use device that enables people with visual impairments to ‘see’ colours and small text.
It uses haptic, audio, and visual feedback to alert the user. This enables the ring to vibrate, light up or communicate with the user through audio speech via a Bluetooth earphone and identify the colour of clothing or read the small text on a label for a grocery item.
In colour mode the user holds the ring to the piece of clothing for two seconds to allow it to detect the colour and read it back to the user. If multiple colours are found the user can slowly move the ring across the clothing to allow it to scan the colours and read them back. Double-tapping and holding the ring switches it to reading mode and they will then be slowly prompted to move the ring slowly across the text as the words are read back to them.
The wearable technology is designed to be discrete and comfortable for users to wear regularly, a process that required eight different prototypes and reiterations.
The winners were recognised for their accomplishment by H.E. Shamma Bint Suhail Faris Al Mazrui, Minister of State for Youth, during the awarding ceremony hosted at Youth x Hub Dubai. During her video, she mentioned, “It is my pleasure to recognise our country’s young, talented inventors and engineers and I am thrilled to see such a strong line up of competitors today. The youth are the pride and joy of our nation. As the UAE positions itself as the hub of innovation and ideas, we must recognise that we would not be able to do so without the persistence and diligence of young people in engineering, science and technology.
Out of 27 countries worldwide, the UAE is the first Arab country selected for the James Dyson Award and that is not a coincidence. It is a country of firsts, and we revel in supporting and equipping our people, especially our youth to strive for excellence and exploring unchartered territories. Celebrating the work that young people are doing is our way of saying thank you in choosing to go big, and building the world to be better than before.”
The Invention
American University of Sharjah students – Maryam Moustafa and Nada Aldash, are the inventors behind the Touch smart ring and were encouraged to enter the James Dyson Award by their professors.
“It can be hard to understand the challenges people with visual impairments have to face. Even for a simple task as picking out clothing or groceries, many have to rely on other people to choose for them. But with Touch they can reclaim their independence. We are so proud to have won the James Dyson Award and hope that Touch can become a mainstream and valuable tool for people with visual impairments,”said Maryam Moustafa.
Winning the national leg of the James Dyson Award will inject AED 9,500 into the Touch project, paving the way for the two inventors to create a working prototype of the device. Eventually they plan to expand with a range of complementary accessories for the smart ring to include necklaces, bracelets, cufflinks, and more.
Nada Aldash, one of the inventors, said: “Winning the James Dyson Award has given us the encouragement to fully develop the Touch smart ring. It’s amazing to think that from our initial brainstorm and our discussions about how colour is perceived by people with visual impairments that we were able to create a needed solution. We are still in the early phases regarding the future direction of the device, but from our discussions with future users we now understand that there is huge potential for a simple smart ring that is comfortable to wear, and adds another dimension to their experience.”
Touch, along with UAE runners up Grounded and Obilizer, will progress to the international stage of the James Dyson Award. The International prizes will be announced on 19th November 2020.
